This invention relates to the field of hand tools, and especially to attachments and accessories for socket wrenches.
Not applicable.
This invention was not developed in conjunction with any Federally sponsored contract.
Not applicable.
Socket wrenches are common tools used by automotive mechanics, machinists, and repair personnel. A typical socket wrench (60) is shown in FIG. 6, which includes a handle (62), a main bar or shaft (61) and a head (63). Many socket wrenches are provided with a ratchet head, which assists in installing or removing nuts and bolts in a single direction.
The head (63) includes a drive boss or stud (64), typically of a square shape, for receiving a socket. Sockets and other attachments for the drive boss (64) are well known in the art, and include sockets for various sizes of nuts and bolt heads, xe2x80x9cdeepxe2x80x9d sockets, adapters, etc. The drive boss (64) is usually equipped with a retention bearing (65), which is ordinarily a captive, spring-loaded ball bearing which provides a friction retention means for keeping a socket or other attachment secured to the drove boss (64) during use.
Socket wrenches are categorized by the size of the drive boss on them. For example, common SAE socket drive sizes are one-quarter inch, three-eighths inch and one-half inch. These measurements refer to the dimension of the side of the square drive boss.
Each socket set and accessory is provided with a square cavity for receiving the drive boss, so the cavity dimension must match the drive boss size in order for a socket or accessory to be usable on a particular wrench. Because these sockets and accessories can be costly to purchase, it is not practical to own multiple sockets of the same size for multiple wrench sizes. Therefore, many owners of socket wrenches and socket sets also own drive adapters (70), as shown in FIG. 7.
A drive adapter allows wrenches and sockets or accessories of differing (unmatched) drive boss size and reception cavities to be used together. The drive adapter (70) provides a reception cavity (72) of one size, and a drive boss (71) of a different size. For example, a one-half inch to three-eighths inch drive adapter would have a one-half inch compatible reception cavity (72) for attachment to a one-half inch socket wrench, and a three-eighths inch drive boss (71) for attachment of three-eighths inch sockets and accessories. These types of one piece drive adapters are well known in the art, and allow a broader range of sockets, accessories, and wrenches to be used in combinations otherwise not possible. This allows an owner of a set of sockets and wrenches to maximize the value of his tool investment.
However, a problem often arises when a tool user is searching for a particular adapter. For example, for the three common sizes of wrenches (xc2xd, xe2x85x9c and xc2xc inch), there are 6 possible adapters, as shown in Table 1. In a tray or drawer full of sockets and accessories, it can be time consuming to find a particular adapter. Further, many socket set owners do not own a full set of adapters for all the size combinations they have in wrenches and sockets.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a socket drive adapter which reduces the number of drive adapters necessary to cover a full range of combinations of sockets, accessories and wrenches. Further, there is a need in the art for a socket drive adapter which provides adaption in more than one direction to decrease the amount of time needed to find an appropriate adapter within a tray or drawer of a toolbox.
The present invention provides a two-way socket drive adapter which can be switched from providing adaption in one direction to another direction in sizes. For example, in one mode, the two-way drive adapter may receive a xc2xd-inch drive boss of a xc2xd-inch wrench, and provide a xe2x85x9c-inch drive boss to receive xe2x85x9c-inch sockets and accessories. This first mode can be referred to as xe2x80x9cdrive size down conversion modexe2x80x9d. With a simple slide of an internal core, the mode of the two-way adapter can be switched to receive the xe2x85x9c-inch drive boss of a xe2x85x9c-inch wrench, and to provide a xc2xd-inch drive boss to receive xc2xd-inch sockets and accessories. This second mode can be referred to a xe2x80x9cdrive size up conversion modexe2x80x9d. This allows each two-way drive adapter to perform the function of two, one-way drive adapters, thereby reducing the total number of adapters needed to cover a full range of applications by one-half.